caterpillars
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Crawly
One must really keep the eyes peeled and rolling in a fine frenzy. Look out! Down on the sidewalk, a little under 1.5″ long, easily mistaken for a turd or cigarillo butt. But, actually, it’s the larva of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), that gloriously large yellow and black butterfly. Early instars, or stages,…
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National Butterfly Center
Southern Texas is home to the greatest diversity of butterflies in the U.S., and the National Butterfly Center, in Mission, is in the thick of the action down there. November is the time to visit, but we didn’t do too badly. As a bonus, we flushed a pair of Bobwhite. It was evidently emperor butterfly…
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Yellow Bear Crossing
Yellow Bear caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica), a.k.a. Virginian Tiger Moth. The very long hairs here are key to identifying this species, since they can be quite variable in coloration, starting cream to yellow and darkening with age, some becoming black. We saw a few of the older ones as well on the paved trails at Fresh…
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Instar Light, Instar Bright
According to the good bug people at Bugguide.net, this is an instar caterpillar of the Grey Hairstreak (Strymon melinus). Here’s the adult, also seen at BBP. The caterpillar was munching away on some Desmodium trifoliatum. There is some variability in the coloring of these caterpillars; this one was pretty much the color of the flowers,…
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Giant Caterpillar in the Night
Traci spotted this big, burly, bristly 2.5″ caterpillar Saturday night. It was crossing the mowed median between Flatbush Ave. and the bicycle path at Floyd Bennett Field. As we approached, the ‘pillar rose up, its deep black eyes alert to hominid danger. Evidently, if we’d attempted to touch it, it would have rolled into a…
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Wooly
The familiar caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella), better known as the Wooly Bear. We usually run into these in the fall, around the time of the first frosts, often crossing the road. (Why did the Wooly Bear cross the road?) But they have several generations a year on the East Coast, and…
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Ailanthus Webworm
I was working my way up to taking a picture of the Ailanthus sapling that appeared this summer in a crack in the concrete in the Back 40. I was looking forward to a tree growing in Brooklyn, at least until the landlord saw it. But the Ailanthus Webworms got to it before I did.…
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Life Cycles in Brooklyn Bridge Park
The rare Two-spotted lady beetles (Adalia bipunctata) I discovered in July are still active in Brooklyn Bridge Park. In fact:“Houston, we have coition.” Luckily, I didn’t learn about reproduction from Republicans, so I know that this kind of activity leads to:Lady beetle eggs. I assume Two-spotted, but don’t know for sure.A recently emerged adult, whose…
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Winter caterpillar
Large Yellow Underwing caterpillar. I took this photo on October 15th in Green-Wood and saved it for the first day of winter to illustrate the insect’s life cycle. I thought October was late in the year, but Noctua pronuba can be active even in the dead of winter, given a thaw. The mature caterpillars can…
Backyard and Beyond 